Jason Collins Reportedly Signs With Nets, Becomes The First Active Openly Gay Player

The day has come that one of the big three in professional sports will have an actively gay player. ESPN is reporting that Jason Collins and the Brooklyn Nets have agreed to a 10-day contract, making for a milestone moment in sports*.

The Nets have openings in their roster for a big man after trading Reggie Evans along with Jason Terry to Sacramento on Wednesday for guard Marcus Thornton. The 35-year-old free agent Collins played in 12 seasons in the league. His last stops included 38 games for Boston and Washington in 2012-13. Collins is expected to suit up against the Lakers on Sunday evening. Expect ESPN and most other sports news outlets to report this same set of info over and over until your ears bleed.

The bigger story here for basketball enthusiasts is that Jason Collins and forever trash-talking, habitual linestepper Kevin Garnett will be talking trash to each other in practice three times a week.

* — There’s a Chris Bosh joke embedded here but now just seems like the wrong time.

Collins just wants to play. He’s already got his pats-on-the-back from everyone, including the White House. Plus, the NFL reaches a much larger audience; if Sam proves that he can be a force in the NFL (something that Collins hasn’t done in the NBA), then he’s going to be the one that people remember.

Espn speculated that ever since he came out that he would be picked up post all star break when vet teams need a big body for a playoff push. They say he woulda been signed sooner but teams felt it would be too big of a distraction. He can’t take Michael Sam’s shine cuz sam has impact as a player plus the perceived nfl culture is a whole nother level. I sorta think SAMs announcement was calculated as well.

Yeah… off-season. Dang, him coming out seems as though it has been easily 2 years now. I remember him being on NFL Network… Jimmy Kimmel… that seems like ages ago. I thought an entire season had passed.

@keepurgardup

I find/found the timing to be odd… until @County of Kings just provided the above information (appreciate that by the way). I just immediately thought (thus my initial reaction/comment) it to be a competition thing between the NBA and NFL. Sam is good enough to be that 3rd-5th rounder and can make a greater impact in the NFL – as a player. I do not follow the NBA as I once did (but have know Collins numbers – they have never been impressive) so my real question (authentic) is…

Is it a worthy signing from what he can contribute on the floor? Because if not? Things are looking mighty funny and it is more about his sexual orientation than his play. That is the part that I do not like.

@The Real Anonymous They picked him up because Big Baby Davis went is going to the Clippers. Would’ve made more sense to go after a kid like DeAndre Liggins or another d-league big, but people are reporting Liggins might be going to Miami.

When stern retired new commissioner Adam silver said his goal is to be as popular as the nfl in the U.S. and with all the growth under stern the NFL is still like 3x as popular. So I wouldn’t underestimate Adam silvers hand in this. The man is about to have a press conference for a 10day contract, sportscenter just interviewed mark madsen about what’s it like to play with him. America and it’s news cycles. Guess who won’t be watchin the first 30 min of first take tomorrow…. This guy.

@County of Kings They will never reach the NFL. Nobody wants to say it, but NFL has plenty of white American stars even though there;s a black majority. Also, there’s always a chance that it could be your team’s year (unless you live in Buffalo, Cleveland, Miami, Dallas, Detroit, Minnesota or Oakland). I don’t know why the owners didn’t push for contracts that aren’t fully guaranteed and a hard cap.

Good for the NBA but……………Jason Collins has been a trash NBA player for like 8 years now. I know, I saw him “play” in Atlanta for 4 years. He had one decent series against Dwight Howard about 4 years ago but Dwight still dominated and the only reason he’s been in the league as long as he has is because he’s 7 ft tall probably about 275 lbs and can use 6 NBA man fouls. He’s been a Top 5 worst NBA player for half a decade now. All he can do is set screens and play post defense and the latter is not really a plus in today’s NBA.

Liability in pick and roll situations, can’t rebound, not athletic, can’t score, old & slow, has not won championships so is not really a veteran leader.

No way that guy sees the court for the Nets. If he gets extended minutes the Nets won’t win guaranteed. He wasn’t even good in his prime.

Not worried about he and KG because they’ve already played on the same team before when both were with the Celtics. He was the 15th man barely on the roster and only on the roster because they needed a guy that was 7 ft. 275 lbs to foul Roy HIbbert.

At least Michael Sam is a good football player so that story is justified. He’s about to get drafted and make a real impact on a team and the NFL.

This Jason Collins thing is just garbage though…a footnote at best and it feels like a charity case. He averaged 3 personal fouls and 3.6 pts for his career. GARBAGE.

I know there’s nostalgia with the Nets and its probably weird that Jason Kidd is his head coach so he may indeed get on the court off GP but it will be a real shocker if the dude ends up on the playoff roster because he’s not a good basketball player.

The bigger story here for basketball enthusiasts is that Jason Collins and forever trash-talking, habitual linestepper Kevin Garnett will be talking trash to each other in practice three times a week.
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He was a Celtic the year he came out. I wouldn’t be surprised if KG already knew.

He’s clearly whoring his sexuality out. How can you be in the closet for 13 years and all of a sudden when you come out you’re at pride marches and doing appearances? I mean its one thing to be like “I’m gay” and then go back to his normal life. But now he’s trying to be some gay icon. And that’s the problem that people have with coming out in sports. If you’re gonna try to be a star because of your sexuality rather than your play then we can’t stand behind you.

Shaquille isn’t on TNT and icy hot commercials because he’s a funny guy, it’s because he was a great fucking basketball player.

So this guy gets a 10 day contract and ESPN holds some big ass press conference and says its a “landmark” in sports all because he prefers dick over pussy. And yea that is the only reason because he was IRRELEVANT when he played and that was when no one knew he liked it up the ass

I’m about 12 hours too late, but some of these comments are about as dumb as you can get. Yes, it’s a big deal that a group of people discriminated against for roughly 250 years in this country are now represented by someone in a major sport. And minimizing someone’s life–who they love, who they build a family with, etc.– to “preferring dick over pussy” is gotdamn retarded.

And for the record, I have absolutely no problem with an individual’s sexuality. I grew up in the Bay Area where by the time you were 4 or 5 years of age, seeing same sex couples be affectionate was not a big deal (San Francisco is a place where people simply do not have an issue with such public displays – no one even notices it is that present).

Sexual orientation and the fight for rights regarding race are not even close to being comparable.